Warning! Contains SPOILERS for Lightyear!Although Toy Story 2 established that Evil Emperor Zurg was Buzz Lightyear’s father, Lightyear retconned the relationship so that Zurg now has an entirely different backstory. So, is Zurg Buzz’s father? Premiering on June 17, 2022, Lightyear explored the titular Buzz Lightyear’s origin story, which (in Toy Story canon at least) inspired the space ranger toy in the Toy Story film series. In Lightyear, Buzz and a ship full of colonists are marooned on an unidentified planet for decades.
Buzz tries to leave using a hyperdrive fuel synthesized on the new colony, but in doing so ends up flinging himself further and further forward in time. Eventually, he returns to find the Colony, the population of which has now lived on the planet for several generations, under assault from mysterious robots and the master they refer to only as Zurg. While Zurg was indeed the major villain in the Buzz Lightyear origin story, he was at no point an Evil Emperor, and he wasn’t Buzz Lightyear’s father. So is Zurg Buzz’s father in Lightyear, and how did Disney and Pixar change Emperor Zurg’s origin?
Who Is Zurg In Toy Story
Toy Story 2 initially answered the question, “is Zurg Buzz’s father?”. In the Toy Story series, Zurg was Buzz Lightyear’s archenemy, featured in the same toy line as him. Although he was only mentioned in the first Toy Story movie, he appeared in Toy Story 2 as a secondary antagonist. His design was inspired by Darth Vader, and Toy Story 2 continued this parody by revealing that Zurg was Buzz’s father in an elevator fight scene near the end of the movie. Referencing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Zurg even directly stated, “No, Buzz! I am your father!” This raised a question when the spin-off was announced: would Emperor Zurg still be Buzz’s father in Lightyear?
For their Lightyear/Toy Story crossover, Pixar and Disney decided to change the Buzz and Zurg relationship. Although their father-son connection was an important piece of lore for the two characters, Buzz and Zurg’s familial relationship had been challenged before. Lightyear wasn’t the first non-Toy Story project based on Buzz, and the 2000-2001 animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command had its own spin on Buzz and Zurg’s history. There are now three explanations for who Zurg is to Buzz for three versions of the character across three different canons and mediums. However, only in Toy Story is Emperor Zurg Buzz Lightyear’s father. Here’s how the two are connected in Lightyear, as well as why the Emperor Zurg canon issues might not be as difficult to explain as they first seem.
Zurg Is Not Buzz’s Father In Lightyear
Zurg isn’t Buzz’s father in Lightyear – instead, he is a future version of Buzz. In a plot uncannily similar to Emmett and Rex Dangervest in The Lego Movie 2, an older Buzz travels back in time to finish the mission once and for all. By this point, the movie’s present-day Buzz has all but come to terms with his new mission: to protect the colony he helped found. Zurg in Lightyear isn’t Buzz’s Lightyear’s dad — neither Lightyear parent factors into the movie at all.
When the “Zurg is future Buzz Lightyear” twist is revealed, Buzz makes his choice, and Future Buzz (Zurg, a name given to him by his robots who can’t pronounce Buzz) decides that he and his former self are too ideologically opposed to be anything other than foes. The fact that Zurg would be different was pretty obvious from the Lightyear trailers. Lightyear altered Zurg’s design, making him less similar to Darth Vader, which was an early indication Pixar was moving away from Toy Story 2′s timely-yet-narratively-disruptive Star Wars gag. The lack of an Emperor Zurg or Lightyear Sr. on the cast list was also a clue.
Why Lightyear Changing Zurg’s Origin Doesn’t Matter
Lightyear answered the question “is Zurg Buzz’s father?” with a resounding “no.” Changing Zurg wasn’t really a surprise, but it also doesn’t mess up the Buzz Lightyear canon the way some fans believe. It seems that the toys in Toy Story have exaggerated personalities of the characters they represent. Chris Evans might not have been enough like Tim Allen for some fans’ taste, but it’s completely believable that Allen’s Toy Story Buzz is an exaggerated version of Evans’ Lightyear Buzz who starred in Andy’s favorite film. The 2011 Toy Story short film “Small Fry” further backs this hypothesis.
Small Fry focuses on the equivalent of a Happy Meal Toy Buzz Lightyear, which has an even more exaggerated personality than the Buzz toy Andy owns. The simpler toy is an equally simpler, even less three-dimensional version of the Space Ranger. It seems that whatever magic brings the toys to life with a pre-written personality and set of memories, it only imbues them with an incredibly simplified version, with a level of depth correlating to their complexity as a toy and their level of resemblance to their inspiration. This also explains why Woody has the authority and sense of justice of a Sheriff but remembers none of the events of Woody’s Roundup, and why the likes of the Army Men and Grabber Machine Aliens maintain their one-dimensional persona around other toys.
Why The Toy Story 2 Zurg Thinks He’s Buzz Lightyear’s Dad
Lightyear may have changed this, but Toy Story 2 answered the question “is Zurg Buzz’s father?” with a “yes.” The Zurg action figures might genuinely believe they’re Buzz’s father because they’re a very simple version of the Zurg who Andy watched in the movie. The future-Buzz plot might literally be too complex for their tiny plastic minds to handle. The other Buzz Lightyear spin-off might also further explain this belief, especially if it exists in Andy’s universe.
The 2000-2001 animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command followed Buzz’s adventures across the galaxy with a team of space rangers, and it contradicted Toy Story 2. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command season 1, episode 41, “Stranger Invasion” directly referenced the elevator scene. During this episode, Zurg revealed that he was Buzz’s father in the middle of a fight. However, this turned out to be a diversion, which created a precedent for Zurg lying about being Buzz’s father as a distraction. The Evil Emperor Zurg figures sport a more cartoonish appearance than the Lightyear Zurg, so perhaps they take their persona from the cartoon if it exists in their world.
In any case, Toy Story and Lightyear are kids’ movies whose canon shouldn’t be taken too seriously. A Lightyear spin-off was never on the cards when Toy Story 2 was being made in the late ’90s, so future continuity issues weren’t a priority. Plus, even though they’re linked, it should be remembered that Tim Allen played an action figure, not the more robust movie character portrayed by Evans in Lightyear. The only backstory Tim Allen’s Buzz has is that he was made in a factory and given to Andy on his birthday. He doesn’t have a dad — as Woody constantly reminds him, he is a toy.
Lightyear Veered Too Far From The Established Canon
Disney and Pixar created a problem for themselves when introducing three different Zurg backstories into the Toy Story canon. So, is Zurg Buzz’s father? Unfortunately, Lightyear was an unmitigated flop, and definitely not the spinoff that Toy Story fans hoped for nor deserved. What’s worse, the origins of Zurg in both Buzz’s animated series and Toy Story 2 at least make some sense, but Lightyear only made the character’s origins much more complicated by including a time loop. Audiences made up of kids and adults alike had a hard time tracking how exactly the future Buzz became Zurg, and how the main character was supposed to fight against a future version of himself.
Making Lightyear the movie that Andy would’ve seen and where Buzz the toy originated from only makes Zurg’s character in Toy Story that much more confusing. By retconning all of Zurg’s previously established stories, it’s created a headache for Toy Story fans to try and understand exactly who Zurg is supposed to be — Buzz’s father, an evil overlord, or Buzz himself. Retconning previously established canon never bodes well for a series, after all, look at the incongruities between the Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter franchises. While the Zurg origin isn’t the only reason why Lightyear flopped, it certainly plays a role.
